Photo provided For $20, you can take a chance on winning an Orange County Chopper that looks something like this one.

LISA GRZYBOSKI
Courier-Post Staff
MONROE
Candy, cheesecakes or a chopper?

For a midget football and cheerleading organization that wanted to inject some serious vroom vroom into its annual fundraiser, the answer was as obvious as a biker on the open road.

It went with the chopper.

If you're scratching your head right now, unsure of what exactly a chopper is - is it a helicopter? a kitchen gadget? - then you haven't tuned in to the television show that has a large segment of America's population buzzing.

American Chopper, on the Discovery Channel, is all about a New York state family that designs and builds the type of motorcycle featured in Easy Rider, the 1969 movie starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. In a nutshell, the bikes have higher handlebars and an extended front end. What they don't have are windshields, front fenders, big seats or big headlights.

The result is a lighter, sleeker motorcycle that epitomizes the word "cool."

Monroe Township Braves Midget Football and Cheerleading hopes the coolness factor leads to a scorching hot fundraiser by the time it raffles off the $43,500 bike on Nov. 19 at its home field in Earling E. Owens Memorial Park.

But just to make sure its campaign hits the gas and doesn't ease up until the winning ticket is drawn, the organization is having the bike built by none other than Orange County Choppers, the family-owned company featured on American Chopper. Founded in 1999 Founded in 1999, the famous bike shop in Montgomery, N.Y., is headed by Paul Teutul Sr. His son, Paul Teutul Jr., is the chief designer and builder.

The pair frequently argue with one another, which fans say makes for interesting television.

Jeanne Colombo's family was watching an episode when she was struck with an interesting idea: Why not capitalize on the show's popularity and raffle off a chopper built by the family's bike shop?

"Motorcycles are the big thing right now," said Colombo, the organization's director of sponsorship and publicity.

The board agreed, and several members recently traveled to Montgomery, N.Y., to sign the contract and tour the facility. They got to meet bike fabricators Vincent DiMartino and Rick Petko, who are regulars on the reality TV show, and they saw Teutul Sr., whose "arms are like tree trunks," Colombo said.

Orange County Choppers will build the football and cheerleading organization a standard chopper, said Mike Burkhouse, the company's salesman. The bike, which should be ready by late September, will be painted white and blue, the Braves' uniform colors.

It won't be one of the choppers featured on the television show, he said, noting the company builds about 120 bikes a year for people and groups across the country, and only 10 of them are filmed.

Nonetheless, the novel fundraiser is a "great opportunity for the organization to raise a lot of money" because it's different from the standard fundraising fare of pizzas, cheesecakes and beef-and-beer events, said Greg Wolfe, the group's president. $20 tickets By the start of its third season on Monday, the organization will have about 350 football players and 250 cheerleaders, he said. Each participant receives 10 $20 raffle tickets and is encouraged to sell at least four of them, Colombo said.

The organization will also sell raffle tickets at such events as the Atlantic City Chopper Festival, scheduled for Oct. 7-9 at the Convention Center.

All of the money raised above the $43,500 to build the bike will go right back into the organization to help pay for equipment, insurance and bus transportation as well as fees for competition, referees and league membership.

A clubhouse for storage, meetings and concessions is also a goal.

"The more money we raise, the more we can do for the children," Wolfe said.

Thus far, it hasn't been difficult for Sheila Dizenzo to sell the tickets for her eldest daughter, who is a cheerleader, and her youngest, who is the team mascot. Hot ticket People seem to be gravitating to the fundraiser, in part because of its connection with the hit television show, which her family started watching about six months ago, Dizenzo said.

"I've sold eight tickets already, and I haven't even hit my family yet," she said.